Do you have problems with proprioception (body awareness)?

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civet wrote:

Oh yeah, I really understand this feeling. I can feel this way, like you do, when I am overloaded and around crowds or sometimes I can do this at will when I fully want to appreciate the beauty around me (hiking in the woods) everything else around me is gone and I am part of the tree or the flowing water or the cloud or whatever has my attention. What a wonderful feeling! - Patti -

crossing your legs and sitting indian style - so do we all do that? amazing the things you never would have connected to AS...
ive always sat "indian style"so to speak its always been thenoylway that has been comfortableto me, it feels so weird not to sit like that and i am so much calmer sitting like that. only on rare occasions do i sit otherwise, well , it also depends on waht im sitting on, but anyway.

when i was in junior / high school, people would call it , gosh i dont even really remember the silly term they used but i was constantly made fun of for sitting like this! i think they called it sitting like a duck or something buit that doesnt even make sense cus a duck doesnt sit like that!!

but so interesting to see that there might be a reason behind it

last night i was sitting at the table i got up and then found myself on the floor w/ some skin chipped off my toe. there is a slight rise /break in the floor from the hardwood kitchen to the carpeted living room. i cant believe i tripped over that! lol yes i am clumsy too. usually only small injuries but i def have to be careful.

Kate

I don't know if it's proprioception or what, but I do often have trouble connecting to body parts, especially when overloaded. It can be hard to find them to tell them where to go, and when I do, they may or may not listen.

Interesting subject. I am told that proprioception is a function of the parietal lobe of our brains. This lobe receives and interprets sensations like pain, temperature, touch, pressure, size, shape and more to the point, body-part awareness or proprioception. Also this lobe participates in hearing, reasoning, and memory. I wonder if there is a correlation?
Kenorri

I do the exact same things. I always sit cross legged, usually on the floor. I can't get into chairs gracefully, so I try to avoid them. Going into any semi-strange place or any place with strange smells, loud sounds strange lighting (ie a movie theatre, first day of school) I have to tap walls or hold onto a friend to get places. I get this thing when I'm falling asleep where I feel like I'm being rocked and my body's floating, and I have to sit up to make it stop.

I never knew that all these weird things that made my mum believe I had mild cerebral palsy could possibly be connected to AS....

Oh, yeah. I'm notorious for getting food all over myself.



I have trouble with that sort of thing as well! I've noticed it when people were trying to teach me dance steps... I just can't get it like most people can. Of course, when they actually verbalize their actions in clear language, I don't have any problem getting it... it's just processing what I'm seeing that gives me problems.

I "double cross" My legs all the time
When I was younger I used to fold my arms behind my back
I tangle myself up alot when I sleep
I sit cross legged pretty much all the time

I don't think my co-ordanation is that bad though.. I did dancing when I was younger and was a top student at it, and never scored really badly on co-ordanation tests. I can touch my nose with my eyes closed easily.

I can do that pat head, rub stomach thing easily, too.

Yeah, this explains alot for me. I like to sit cross-legged and in foetal position, so I can hug my knees.
Apparently it's normal to feel like you're floating as you go to sleep, but what I get is different from that- after an hour or so of lying still in the dark, if I don't get to sleep I start to feel like my bodily proportions have gone all wierd. Like my feet are a million miles away from my head, or like my feet and hands are huge, and my head and torso are tiny. Very "Alice in Wondereland."

Without adequate proprioception, I think I would get lost more. Like codeman38, I also have a terrible sense of direction. I often only manage to find my way around because my legs know where to go from repeated walking along the same path.

I have a deficit in proprioception too. It goes with my overall clumsiness. My sense of balance is poor and together with the proprioceptive deficit, I get by relying on vision. But my eyesight is poor too. Walking down steps I'm tentative, looking at the placement of my feet because I have little proproceptive sensation in my ankle joints and feet to tell me where they are in space. I do better with practice, and I do much worse when I am stressed or overloaded. For example, if I am in a crowded auditorium and I have to make my way to a seat at a table in the middle of the room, it is a challenge to avoid bumping into tables, chairs, and other people. Still I go hiking and backpacking, only slowly and deliberately.

The only problem I have with proprioception is when walking through doorways. I often bump one of my arms or shoulders into the frame of the door as if I didn't even notice it was there. I also have a pretty poor depth perception. I don't consider myself to be a clumsy person, but I am extremely tentative about where I am walking.

I find that I become disoriented and dizzy very easily, could this have something to do with poor proprioception?

Bec, I get dizzy easily. The vestibular system in the inner ear works together with the visual system plus the proprioceptive sense in the muscles and joints. Navigating one's body through space and observing motion in the field of vision is a complex interaction that some on the spectrum have problems with, me included. If you don't walk tentatively are you a little off balance? Clumsy is an awful word I know. The term 'clumsy child syndrome' I disdain but I was a clumsy child as my family reminded me often. The term 'dyspraxic' is easier for me to accept.

Tangling body parts in order to be able to determine their whereabouts - all the time. When serious issues are being discussed I remove my shoes and curl up on a chair, preferably with some weight on top, like a cat . Open spaces seem to be a major problem; I can understand perfectly that a child would want to hold someone's hand when in an open space. (My problem in this situation is that I do not like to hold hands, so that I helplessly float about until I find a wall.)

Right now I'm sitting on a chair with my feet against the keyboard, and when I'm not typing my arms are crossed around my legs, my hands grip the soles of my feet, and my chin is on my knees. I also often squat on the chair. It's all very unladylike (not that I care).

That's exactly how I'm sitting.

No, not normally. I'm usually okay when I am just walking on flat ground. When I walk downstairs (or down any steep incline) though, I feel like I will lose my footing. I think you mentioned that you have difficulties with that too, Bobcat.

I have a problem with verbal instructions, too. Verbal instructions require me to visualize, and if I can't visualize, then I don't understand them. And if I do understand them, I'm often too busy visualizing to hear all the instructions.

The best way for me to learn is to actually do something. I don't know if I mentioned it in this thread, but the way my cousin taught me to knit was to actual show me with my own hands (though I didn't practice after that, so I don't remember anymore, eheh). I find that that type of learning works best for me.